


The Sacrifice of Dolores Umbridge

by sophh



Series: 31 Days of Writing Challenge [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 31 Days of Writing Challenge, Character Death, Dolores Umbridge is Her Own Warning, I hate killing characters so this is what you get, Murder, Other, Ritual Killing, The ending she deserved, actually this is probably too nice for her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26900446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophh/pseuds/sophh
Summary: After the centaurs carried Dolores away, they kept her caged...until a celestial phenomenon requires her sacrifice. Mind the tags!
Series: 31 Days of Writing Challenge [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945717
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5
Collections: 31 Days of Writing Challenge - Fall 2020





	The Sacrifice of Dolores Umbridge

**Author's Note:**

> 31 Days of Writing Challenge, October 7th: major character death. 
> 
> Warning: murder of a creepy toad-lady ahead.

Dolores Umbridge was afraid—no, terrified. All night she had been hearing those awful horse- _things_ keening and chanting. It was enough to make her hair stand on end and her teeth chatter. 

"What's going on? What's happening?" she shouted, rattling the bars of her rusted metal cage. 

"Silence!" a deep voice boomed, and Dolores scurried away from the bars at once. "We do not tolerate interruptions to our sacred ritual!" 

Dolores gulped. "Ritual?" She hated how meek her voice sounded, but these filthy half-breeds were terrifying. They had snapped her wand in half, so she couldn't use magic against them, and now they were keeping her awake with their eerie ritual. "How does this, ah, _ritual_ work, exactly?"

"It requires a sacrifice," the man-horse boomed. 

"A sacrifice?" Dolores asked, her voice as sweet and innocent as she could make it. "Whatever do you mean, a sacrifice? What is the purpose of such barbaric behavior?"

"Six planets have aligned on this night," the half-horse explained. He wasn't speaking as loudly now, for which Dolores was grateful. She already had enough of a headache from the recitations of the other horse-people. "Our ancestors believed that this would hail the dawn of a new age—one in which we rise to our fullest power!" 

Dolores shivered at the very idea. Those horse-things simply couldn't be allowed such potential! Why, if she still had her wand, she would—

A nasty thought suddenly occurred to her. "Ahem," she coughed. "Silly me, perhaps I've missed something...what exactly are you planning to sacrifice?" 

"We must sacrifice the blood of a magical human," was the reply. 

Dolores looked around as if expecting to see some other witch or wizard conveniently huddled in another cage nearby. But there was no one.

She gulped again, and it sounded abnormally loud to her own ears. "Surely..." she began. "Surely you don't mean _me_?" 

The deep voice laughed, sending a chill down her spine. "Who else would I be referring to?"

Dolores drew herself up to her full height of four feet, eleven inches. "Do you know who I am? I am Dolores Jane Umbridge, Undersecretary—"

"Your position in wizarding society means nothing to us!" the half-breed roared. 

Dolores closed her eyes and tightened her now-tattered cardigan around her shoulders. "Filthy, heartless creatures!" she screamed, rocking back and forth. "How dare you threaten me?"

"You should not have told her our plans, Bane," a reproachful voice said. 

Dolores opened her eyes and quieted her shrieking. A second horse-person! Maybe this one would see reason. 

"Excuse me," she said sweetly, "but I think you're making an awful mistake." The door to her cage opened with a loud clang and she withdrew to the farthest corner. "Please don't hurt me!"

"Don't hurt you?" The new voice sounded amused. "Like you didn't hurt our kind with your registries and legislation?"

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't hurt me, I'll never say another bad word against you—"

"Silence!" the one called Bane growled. "You see how these humans lie, Ganus?" Ganus didn't say anything, but he must have nodded his assent. "Take her to the pyre." 

"The—" Dolores began to scream again. "You can't burn me alive, you horrid creatures—"

"We did not say we would burn you alive," Bane said cryptically. 

"But—"

Ganus entered the cage and grabbed her arm with a rough, calloused hand before she had a chance to make her escape. 

"Let me go," Dolores sobbed. She knew that she must sound so pitiful, but she didn't care. She couldn't let these monsters murder her. "Please, I'll do anything…"

Ganus marched her towards the chanting voices, even as she continued to beg and plead for her life. A few minutes later, they reached the forest clearing where hundreds of horse-people had gathered around an enormous fire. The flames leapt toward the sky, bathing the herd below in a flickering light. 

Dolores' jaw dropped. She had never seen so many of these terrible beasts in one place before. The swell of their cries and the stamping of their hooves shook the very earth she stood upon. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but then again, she reasoned, she was probably better off not knowing. 

A tall, silver-grey horse-man appeared before Dolores. She thought that he must be very old based on the length of his long, silvery beard. When he spoke, his voice rattled. 

"Prepare the sacrifice," he said. Dolores wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but the clamoring of hooves seemed to grow even louder at his words. 

Suddenly, she saw the glint of a sword out of the corner of her eye. Before she had a chance to cry out, however, it had swung towards her, slicing her torso in two. Her last thought was that the half-breeds would pay for their insolence. 


End file.
